1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to data searching systems, and relates more particularly to a system and method for searching data in disparate file systems.
2. Related Art
The ability to efficiently share information on a worldwide scale has become increasingly important as businesses and organizations become more globalized. For instance, there often exists a need for workers at different geographic locations within a business to share data files with each other. Examples of such files may include technical support information, development schedules, work projects, guidelines and procedures, plans, white papers, etc. A typical file sharing system comprises a client-server architecture that allows users with client software to access centralized or distributed server systems that store files. Numerous client-server architectures can be used to implement a file sharing system, e.g., the internet, intranets, local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), virtual private networks (VPN""s), etc. With the proliferation of the world wide web, a preferred client interface in such client-server environments has become the web browser. Web browsers provide an easy-to-use interface for users seeking to locate and view data.
Web browsers operate by issuing HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) commands, and then receiving and displaying HTML (hypertext mark-up language) files. However, not all data is stored in an HTML file format. For example, Lotus Notes(trademark) data is stored in a Lotus Notes file format. Other non-HTML format data can be found on servers running traditional operating systems, such as an IBM server running the VM(trademark) (virtual machine) operating system. In order to access such data, a special interface must be provided that modifies or xe2x80x9cwrapsxe2x80x9d the desired information with the appropriate HTML commands so that the information can be interpreted by the browser. In the case of Lotus Notes data, a Lotus Domino(trademark) Web interface can be used to retrieve and wrap the data for a browser. Similarly, in order to access data stored in a VM file format, a specialized program would be required to convert the data to an HTML format.
One of the difficulties of maintaining and providing information on a global scale is that large organizations often have numerous disparate systems. Such disparate systems may utilize different types of hardware, operating systems, server applications, file structures, or file formats. Accordingly, every day processing tasks, such as searching for information, can become quite burdensome when disparate systems are utilized. Performing a simple search may require a user to manually log into multiple systems, issue multiple requests, and integrate multiple sets of results, all in different formats. In the two examples provided above, separate search commands would have to be issued to both the Lotus Domino Web interface and the VM server. U.S. Pat. No. 6,064,977 entitled, xe2x80x9cWEB SERVER WITH INTEGRATED SCHEDULING AND CALENDARING,xe2x80x9d issued to Haverstock et al., and assigned to IBM Corporation, describes a system for accessing non-HTML objects in a web browser. Unfortunately, the patent, which is hereby incorporated by reference, fails to teach a system that facilitates searching among disparate systems.
Thus, heretofore, if an end-user wanted to search for information in two or more disparate systems, the user would have to issue two or more different search requests. In addition, the user would be responsible for integrating different sets of search results, which would generally be returned in different formats. Accordingly, a need exists to provide a system for allowing a single search criteria to be submitted to disparate systems, and then provide the results in a comprehensive format.
The present invention overcomes the above-mentioned problems by providing a system and method for searching for data in disparate systems and returning a comprehensive merged list of search results. In a first aspect, the invention provides a server system, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the memory includes an operating system program and a search program executable by the processor, and wherein the search program comprises: (1) an interface for receiving a search request from a client; (2) a first module for issuing the search request to the operating system and receiving back a first list of search results; (3) a second module for issuing the search request to a disparate server system and for receiving back a second list of search results, wherein the second list of search results is in a disparate format than the first list; and (4) a merge system for merging the first list and the second list into a merged list having a common format.
In a second aspect, the invention provides a program product stored on a recordable medium that, when executed, comprises: (1) an interface for receiving a search request; (2) a mechanism for issuing the search request in a first request format to a first search system, and for receiving a first list of search results in a first format; (3) a mechanism for issuing the search request in a second request format to a second search system, and for receiving a second list of search results in a second format, wherein the first list is received in a disparate format than the second list; and (4) a mechanism for merging the first list and the second list into a common format.
In a third aspect, the invention provides a method of searching for data among disparate systems, comprising the steps of: submitting a search request to a search interface running on a host operating system; issuing the search request to a disparate server system; receiving a first list in format disparate from a host operating system file format; issuing the search request to the host operating system; receiving a second list in a format specific to the host operating system; and merging the first list and the second list into a merged list having a common format.
In a fourth aspect, the invention provides a server system, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the memory includes an operating system program and a search program executable by the processor, and wherein the search program comprises: (1) an interface for receiving a search request from a client; (2) a module for issuing the search request to a first disparate server system and for receiving back a first list of search results; (3) a module for issuing the search request to a second disparate server system and for receiving back a second list of search results; and (4) a merge system for merging the first list and the second list into a merged list.